Hope Attenhofer, a seminarian at the Pacific School of Religion, holds a cross to the sky during an Occupy San Francisco march through the financial district on Monday October 24, 2011 in San Francisco, Calif. "We're called to be here," said Attenhofer, "There is too much corporate greed that is leaving people hungry and without hope or jobs."

Photo: Mike Kepka, The Chronicle

Hope Attenhofer, a seminarian at the Pacific School of Religion,...

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A group of representative from the different religious organization from around the bay area stop to protest the state of economic inequality outside Wells Fargo Bank during an Occupy San Francisco march through the financial district on Monday October 24, 2011 in San Francisco, Calif.

Photo: Mike Kepka, The Chronicle

A group of representative from the different religious organization...

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Giovanni Gourgue, a security guard at Fidelity Investments, watches as a group of protesters connected to Occupy San Francisco march through the financial district on Monday October 24, 2011 in San Francisco, Calif.

Eddie Placek, homeless, rests on his day off as a home care worker in the Occupy San Francisco encampment near the embarcadero Monday October 24, 2011 in San Francisco, Calif. Placek, said he feels like this country's financial institutions are greedy and he is here to stay with Occupy San Francisco as long as he is welcome.

Photo: Mike Kepka, The Chronicle

Eddie Placek, homeless, rests on his day off as a home care worker...

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Tony Rhodes, a seminarian at the Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley, supports a group clergy rallying during an Occupy San Francisco march through the financial district on Monday October 24, 2011 in San Francisco, Calif. Rhodes wanted to march today because it was a calling from God.

The city and the Occupy SF protesters are headed for a confrontation. And soon. The group at the Embarcadero has quickly gone from a sidewalk protest to a full encampment with tents, a kitchen and laptops powered by car batteries.

Exactly, in other words, what Mayor Ed Lee and city officials said wasn't going to happen.

Occupy SF began 24-hour protests Sept. 17, joining a national movement that is protesting corporate greed and economic inequity. They started with a small camp on Market Street, near Main, and police moved in - after repeated warnings that tents and open fires were not permitted - to dismantle it on Oct. 6.

Soon afterward, group members moved to Justin Herman Plaza, on the Embarcadero. When they began to erect tents and more permanent structures, police cleared that camp Oct. 16, removing tents and power washing the site. Protesters then moved back.

"At that point, this group started out with a tarp," said Police Chief Greg Suhr. "And we figured, well, that looks like they are using it to cover their supplies, so we will see where it goes. Now we are far afield of that."

This continues to be an incredibly delicate balance. You don't have to walk through the camp for five minutes before you run into a thoughtful, sound-bite-ready protester, eager to lay out the group's position.

Kyle Lesley is an audio engineer who gave up his apartment in the Mission on Sept. 23 to join the protests.

The idea of crashing into camp with riot police and doing battle with these earnest revolutionaries seems positively un-American. Accordingly, the police have held endless dialogues and negotiations.

"And, of course, every single person that you talk to says at the end of the discussion, 'I am not in charge; I am just speaking for myself,' " says Suhr.

However, by bending over backward to accommodate discussion, the cops lost a good part of the battle when they winked at the first tent to go up, almost immediately after the Oct. 16 police action. Reportedly, police moved in right away to "remind" demonstrators that tents weren't permitted, but the protesters kicked up such a fuss that they felt it would be better if they just let it go.

That was a mistake. There must be more than 50 tents now. What they don't have is Oakland, where the encampment is out of control. Oakland police have issued an eviction order; the protesters have ignored it. And no one wants a public-relations nightmare where police in riot gear upend the encampment and land on the evening news.

But the alternative is to do nothing. For all the high-sounding rhetoric, turning the bocce ball courts at the palm-lined Embarcadero into a refugee camp won't work. Many of the city's homeless residents have gravitated there, the sanitation is a nightmare, there are rats, and car batteries are neither a safe nor ecological energy source.

The police have given notice to nearly everyone of the violations, and they've spoken to the non-leaders and they'll probably move in again late at night. In the two previous police raids, typically half of the protesters pick up their stuff and get out of the way, in keeping with their nonviolent, non-conflict philosophy.

The other half welcomes a confrontation with lots of sound and fury (making sure that it is captured on camera of course). That's the scene - especially if someone goes rogue like the New York police officers who shot pepper spray at demonstrators - that makes everyone wince.

But police and city agencies should move it. There is no other choice. As Occupy SF gets bigger and louder, the potential for trouble only increases. Lee is getting persistent questions about why there are tents all over the Embarcadero, and with the election looming, you can bet he'd like to show he can handle this.

"The watchword all along has been safety," said Suhr. "We'd love for them to police themselves ... But it is becoming more and more unsafe. If they can't make it safe, we will."

It doesn't matter if that is a threat or a promise. The result will be the same.